Media Literacy Continues With Fake News Game Show at West Boca Library

A crowd driven by a competitive spirit and a thirst for knowledge proved to be the perfect fit for the Fake News Game Show held May 9 at the West Boca Raton branch of Palm Beach County Libraries. 

The event, part of a partnership with Palm Beach County Libraries to advance its media literacy initiative, drew about 20 participants who divided into teams of four or five.

Director Lulu Ramadan and Vice President Abigail Perry served as the evening’s hosts and steered two rounds of the trivia-style game while interjecting media literacy tips and moderating some thoughtful discussions on the “fake news” phenomenon of our era.

“Those who participated had insightful questions about finding and vetting news sources as readers,” Ramadan said. “Some of the teams were regulars at the library’s monthly trivia night and brought a competitive edge to the game. Others were just happy to play and to get first-hand insight from journalists on the steps we take to ensure that our reporting is accurate, objective and impartial.”

The game pitted participating teams against one another as they vied for points earned by successfully identifying legitimate news reports published by established media outlets amidst debunked internet blog posts that pose as news. 

In the end, no one team earned a perfect score, underscoring the need for more media literacy in an era when misinformation rapidly spreads online.

“This game always gets people thinking! It’s really fulfilling to see all ages engage in the content presented during the game,” Perry said. “We may be presenting, but each time, I end up learning from the contestants. This crowd especially was a hoot!”

It was the second Fake News Game Show hosted in coordination with the Palm Beach County Library system, which provided the winning teams with copies of “Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News” by Kevin Young, poetry editor of the New Yorker.